Category: Outlets – Read Write Web

PlentyOfFish May Be Worth $1 Billion

Posted on October 30, 2007

Plentyoffish_logoREAD/WRITE WEB — Oct 29 — In June '06 PlentyOfFish was earning ~$3.5m/yr on Google Adsense. Next year it will earn $10m+. POF gets 1.2 billion page views/month, and ~500,000 unique logins per day and is #2 in the US online dating market and #1 in Canada and UK (Hitwise). Facebook (40 billion page views/mo) has a valuation of $15 Billion thanks to Microsoft's $240m investment last week. According to Markus POF has 5-10 times the click through rate of Facebook so POF's 1.2 Billion page views is the same as 5-10 Billion Facebook page views per month. Markus concludes "Facebook is only able to generate 10 to 15 times as many clicks on ads as my site and it's valued at 15 billion." What's more, some of his direct competitors, eHarmony, Match, etc, are valued in the billions. Markus didn't put a figure on what PlentyOfFish is worth but it's clear he's thinking in the billions. Not bad for a one-man company (plus a new Customer Service Rep!).

The full article was originally published at ReadWriteWeb, but is no longer available.

YouTube Now 4th Biggest Web Property in World

Posted on January 11, 2007

Logo_youtube_15READ/WRITE WEB — Jan 10 — On current Alexa figures YouTube is now ranked 4th in the world, behind only Yahoo, MSN and Google itself! I also checked out the comparisons on Compete and comScore.

The full article was originally published at ReadWriteWeb, but is no longer available.

Mark Brooks: YouTube is wonderfully addictive. It's destined to reshape the media landscape. Expect to see more homespun hits springing from it, a la "Blair Witch Project."

YouTube Now 4th Biggest Web Property in World

Posted on January 11, 2007

Logo_youtube_15READ/WRITE WEB — Jan 10 — On current Alexa figures YouTube is now ranked 4th in the world, behind only Yahoo, MSN and Google itself! I also checked out the comparisons on Compete and comScore.

The full article was originally published at ReadWriteWeb, but is no longer available.

Mark Brooks: YouTube is wonderfully addictive. It's destined to reshape the media landscape. Expect to see more homespun hits springing from it, a la "Blair Witch Project."

Top Web Apps in India

Posted on October 10, 2006

Sahdipar_1READ/WRITE BLOG — Oct 10 — It's an exciting time for the economy in India. India has 1.1 Billion people and the average age of the nation is just 24.9 years. Indian GDP is growing 8%+. Their are 45 to 50 Million internet users in India making it the 4th biggest country in the world in terms of total Internet users – behind only the US, China and Japan. However due to India's huge population, its Internet Penetration is among the lowest in the world at only 4.5%, and only 10 million of those users are real power users who spend money online. Another challenge is that there are 23 mainstream languages that are spoken in India.  Matrimonial sites. Shaadi and BharatMatrimony.com are the most successful. India's eBay is Bazee.com (acquired by eBay). For Online Travel – MakeMyTrip, Yatra, and Arzoo.com (founded by Sabeer Bhatia, the co-founder of Hotmail. Jobs – Naukri. Real estate – 99acres. Online movie rentals – Seventymm.

The full article was originally published at Read Write Web, but is no longer available.

del.icio.us Plans To Become a Social Network

Posted on October 5, 2006

Delicious_logoREAD/WRITE BLOG — Oct 4 —del.icio.us will essentially turn into a social network, with more focus on people instead of data. The CEO recently stated, "I want to help people connect with others within the system, either to people they already know or discovering new people and communities based on interest."

The full article was originally published at Read Write Web, but is no longer available.

Mark Brooks: Next – del.icio.us to offer personality profiling matchmaking based on bookmarks

Social Networking Silver Bullet

Posted on October 5, 2006

Social_network_1READ/WRITE WEB BLOG — Oct 4 — Social networks are becoming an important ingredient of all sorts of consumer experiences. Here are a few social networks worth keeping an eye on: LinkedIn – For business networking. CollectiveX – Team collaboration. Michael Arrington (TechCrunch) said CollectiveX is social networking "the way it should have been done in the first place." PeopleAggregator – A meta social network system which enables you to connect other social networking services together. Wetpaint – Free hosted websites. A combination of "wikis, blogs, and social networks." e.g. WikiFido. Multiply – Sharing your life, with privacy. Imeem – Allows sharing blogs, photos, audio, and video.

What we require is a system that connects all social networks.  i.e. Social groupware – like CollectiveX and PeopleAggregator.

The full article was originally published at Read Write Web, but is no longer available.

Mark Brooks: Social networking will follow the same trajectory as internet dating. More niche sites will emerge. Users will have a presence on mainstream sites and add personas on niche sites. 'Profile portability' is needed but has never happened for dating sites. The sites want to lock in their userbase.  Social networks, similarly, want to lock in their userbases. But they will take more heat from users for not allowing profiles to be ported to other sites. People like PeopleAggregator's founder (and Macromedia founder) Marc Canter have been pounding on the table for open networks and profile portability for a few years. Marc decided, if you can't join them, beat them, and developed PeopleAggregator independently.